Assurance

Our primary responsibility is to ensure the physical, emotional, and psychological well-being of our students at all times. Higher order change can only occur when a person is not concerned for their immediate safety. This is why Elements is not a boot camp, and does not employ any form of deprivation as a means to force compliance. Of all the research we have investigated and performed, the idea of “breaking students down to build them up” has been disproven time and again. This is also why our staff are trained exhaustively and have several redundant forms of communication so that they can always access all the same emergency services that one could find in civilization.

Our field mentors are background-screened and extensively vetted for appropriateness of fit. They are consistently evaluated and they consistently and formally evaluate each other in order to continuously develop themselves as professionals working in Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare.  They come from varied backgrounds, but one thing is common among all staff who work with our kids: a heart for our boys and the work we do, and a desire to grow in their professional lives as well as their personal lives.

Elements Of Change

Community-Nature-Wellness-Therapy

The wilderness is a setting that is rich with life metaphors that can be used to great effect by a skilled therapist. Living in the wilderness with a small group for a period of time also provides opportunities to develop concrete skills such as cooking, camp set up and orienteering, as well as the social skills necessary for cooperative, intimate camp life. These factors create natural opportunities to build self confidence in a short period of time. The intensity of wilderness life provides constant opportunities to experiment with new and healthier ways of coping with social and emotional stressors.

Our program relies on four key elements to leverage the wilderness setting and promote awareness and growth. Those elements are: Community, Nature, Wellbeing, and Therapy.

Community

When a small group of staff and students live together in the wilderness, they automatically experience a greatly heightened level of interdependence.   Every student must depend on every other student and staff member for camp life to go smoothly. Eating, orienteering, staying safe, staying dry, getting along and maintaining a level of comfort are all group concerns requiring everyone’s participation and cooperation.

As a result of this constant interdependence, the group becomes an emotionally safe environment where students are able to become more honest and accountable for feelings and behavior patterns. Students tend to replicate the relationship patterns from home within the group, creating opportunities to explore and re-engineer those patterns. While living together, students learn about their respective behaviors and relationship patterns. Through enhanced awareness, students practice and refine new and healthier skills for interacting and cooperating with others. Specifically:

• Students work together to meet the daily challenges of living in the outdoors
• Students are taught to use assertive communication to give and receive valuable feedback to/from peers and adults
• Senior students support, encourage, and mentor newer students
• Students are also encouraged to use assertive communication skills to identify and share feelings with staff and peers
• Our single-gender focus allows for freer discussion of age appropriate developmental and identity issues and concerns
• Within the community, each student has a field mentor who understands and facilitates his individualized treatment plan
• Students learn to trust and cooperate with authority figures through collective goal setting and group participation

Nature

The simplicity and austerity of nature intrinsically provides opportunities for students to understand the impact their behaviors have on themselves and others. There’s no television, computer or bedroom to disappear into when things become difficult. Rather, nature rewards effort, perseverance, and patience and discourages impulsive problem solving. Students naturally gain confidence and self esteem as they master various outdoor living skills. Nature provides a setting free of distractions where students can easily gain insight and clarity into themselves and others. Living in nature often inspires students to define and connect with the spiritual aspects of their recovery.

While living in the outdoors, students:

• Learn and practice outdoor living skills, such as, building shelters, preparing food, and making fires – skills that have a direct impact on their comfort and well-being
• Must use collaborative problem solving techniques to maneuver through environmental challenges
• Live free from the distractions of drugs, media, toxic relationships, and other societal stressors
• Have opportunities to participate in daily personal reflective time, journaling, and/or meditation

*Elements is not a survival-based program

Wellness

Physical wellbeing is an integral part of a student’s success and recovery. Many emotional and psychological disorders have a correlative relationship to imbalances of physical wellbeing. Prior to arriving at Elements Wilderness Program, most students have neglected their physical health which contributes significantly to their emotional and behavioral unrest. At Elements, we’re passionate about restoring a student’s physical wellbeing, knowing that it paves the way for sustainable emotional healing.

• Students regularly exercise, hiking 2-5 miles several days per week
• Staff facilitate regular therapeutic experiential activities and physical play time
• Elements provides a healthy, well balanced and varied diet
• Students return to healthy sleep patterns based on nature’s clock

*Elements does not operate from deprivation model

Therapy

Traditional therapeutic principles and techniques are also a vital part of the Elements program.  A therapist is the head of each student’s treatment team and guides students, field mentors, and parents in developing and implementing an individualized treatment plan.  The therapist helps students and parents understand and engage the wilderness treatment process. Parents are appraised of their son’s behaviors and progress in treatment.  The therapist also collaborates with parents and other professionals in aftercare planning.

Important parts of the therapy element include:

• The assigned therapist accurately assesses each student’s needs with the support of the field mentors
• The therapist develops an individualized treatment plan collaboratively with the student and parents
• Each student participates in a weekly individual therapy session
• Each student participates in a weekly group therapy session facilitated by the therapist, as well as daily group counseling facilitated by mentor staff
• The family’s therapist conducts a weekly conference call to update parents on their son’s progress and to provide support and direction for parental participation
• Students are encouraged to practice new skills with their family members through weekly letter writing
• When students have reached a sufficient  level of insight and accountability, they can participate in family therapy sessions via telephone from the field
• We can provide formal psychological and educational evaluations as needed to aid in the accurate assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning of each student
• The therapist works closely with families, referral sources, and educational consultants in continued care planning

*Elements is a Utah state licensed outdoor therapeutic program and the clinical staff are appropriately licensed by the state of Utah in their respective fields

Student Phases

At Elements, we recognize that no one can force true change on a person from the outside, whether by coercion or enticement. We acknowledge that change in behavior alone is not the goal, as behavior can be manipulated and is often not truly internalized.  What we do believe is that our students need consistency and predictability in order to feel safe and understand their environment. Our phase system can help students track their own progress and gain insight into their own personal growth. It provides our boys with a structure that helps make the process of personal growth feel more concrete and clear. Each phase is as follows:

Acclimation

When students arrive at Elements they are given time to adjust to their unfamiliar surroundings. This phase is designed to promote trust and prepare students to participate at a minimal level in the community. During this phase, the student spends time away from the social distractions of the group and has time to begin to let go of the confusion from home and connect with the pace of living in the wilderness.

Students are assigned a peer mentor and a staff mentor who support the new student in their physical and emotional acclimation. The new student is given reading and writing assignments that promote reflection on the past and help the student understand and anticipate the process of change.

Exploration

The purpose of the exploration phase is to promote initial self-awareness and foster therapeutic skills that will be a foundation for ongoing success. During this phase students receive an intervention letter from their parents. The community becomes a setting to improve consciousness and a setting to practice basic communication and relationship skills.

The student learns to rely on the group for emotional and physical support. The student gains self-confidence as he struggles to master living in the wilderness. During this phase the therapist, student, and family work together to develop an individualized treatment plan.

Discovery

The discovery phase helps students move from simple awareness and cooperation towards deeper accountability and initiative. Students use their new skills to understand the impact their actions have had on themselves and family members.

Assignments are designed to promote a deeper understanding of some of the underlying motives for past behavior and help students move towards finding healthier ways of coping. The student continues to gain confidence as he becomes proficient at living outdoors and less dependent on others for external motivation

Mastery

When students reach the mastery phase they have progressed from superficial motivation to more active and invested participation. The student takes a step beyond simple accountability and is now working in partnership with his peers, staff, therapist and family to complete treatment goals. At this phase students have devised a method for change and are actively modifying their habits and engaging their environment.

They have gained confidence and self-esteem from mastering the art of living outdoors. Students have also begun the process of re-evaluating their self-image and begin to have a healthier understanding of their individuality. During this phase students begin to take on a leadership role in the group and actively mentor new students.

Mentor

Those students who reach mentor status are able to use their skills and motivation for the betterment of the group. These students have had success implementing strategies for personal change and have met the majority of program challenges. They actively lead the community in day-to-day activities and teach and mentor all of the students in the group. Not all students reach this phase as it requires a deeper sense of self-reflection, honesty, and persistence.

Academics

At Elements, we believe that everything we do should guide our clients back to the true purpose of wilderness: helping our clients identify their maladaptive coping mechanisms and equipping them with adaptive skills to confront life’s hardships. As such, the 7 Challenges and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy hold the most crucial spots in a student’s day in the field.

We are proud to offer academic credit to our students while supporting those vital pillars of our clinical program without taking time out to distract from them. Elements partners with Cognia accredited program that can see the value in the work our clients already do, and helps us offer credit to our clients for that work.

Elements offers the following credits:

• Physical Education: 1.0 credit (two terms)
• Psychology: 0.5 credits (one term)
• Character Education: 0.5 credits (one term)
• Life Skills: 0.5 credits (one term)
• Health: 0.5 credits (one term)

Each student who earns at least partial credit will receive a transcript upon completion of the program.

Adventure Programming

Elements’ incorporates Adventure Programming to complement our strong therapeutic foundation. We believe AP provides a unique experience for students during their wilderness experience. The challenge of activities including rock climbing, rappelling, canyoneering, fly fishing, stand-up paddle boarding and low ropes courses can provide a host of powerful teaching opportunities. Some groups have experienced mountain biking and cross-country skiing. Positive outcomes include increases in self-confidence, self-efficacy, problem solving skills, effective communication, self-awareness, trust, and developing healthy coping strategies.

In keeping to our commitment to provide the highest quality programming, Elements is aligned with American Mountain Guide Association’s (AMGA’s) standards and training to facilitate our adventure-based experiences. AMGA is established as an international industry leader in training and certification for climbing and mountaineering.

AP offers our students an alternative view to challenges in life, and how to negotiate them with a sense of empowerment. We believe adventure-based challenges will accelerate the therapeutic process while building confidence to make healthier overall decisions.

Expedition Model

Our boys have long sought distraction as a way to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. That is why we believe that a comprehensive program set in an environment free of outside distractions provides the best space for our boys to come to real understanding about their role in their life. We have found that to be best achieved in a constant expedition model, rather than in a “base camp” model, where students spend a bulk of their time in transition between the field experience and the base experience.

The intrinsic benefit of the one unbroken journey that our expedition model provides is that all our observation and assessment happens in real time, in the group, rather than in an artificial “outpatient-style” setting that was designed for our own comfort. Our therapists, our staff, our adventure programming director, and our back up and support are centered around each group, not the other way around.

Our boys own their journey, and the sense of accomplishment they get from being out there is unparalleled.